Price reports for duty at the Capitol

Above: Sen. Price takes part in a crossbow demonstration at a sportsmen’s caucus.

A woodworker, one-time professional actor and current state senator, Sen. Scott Price can wear many hats, but the Legislature’s representative from District 3 is a military man at heart.

Price said he still remembers the smell of the hot canvas tents at Fort Bliss when his father brought him to Armed Forces Day as a child. Inspired by his father’s 20 years of service in the U.S. Army, Price would later serve as a member of the Air Force, where he worked 20 years in the weather field.

Military discipline is evident in committee hearings. Price said his meticulous questioning style is influenced by his experience with the Air Force acquisition review process; he learned early on to pay close attention to details.

“When you are in the business of doing what the military does, you need to be pretty precise,” he said.

The idea of running for office first occurred to Price in the early 1990s, but he said he wanted to finish his military career before venturing into state government.

“You pick where you want to engage the issues that you find important. I wanted to have a little more direct position of engagement, and not be on the sidelines,” he said.

His election to office was not the first time Price appeared on the public stage. He has been an extra in movies and was part of a summer-long theatre production in Texas shortly after graduating high school. Titled “Viva El Paso,” the show featured multiple vignettes portraying the history of the city.

“I guess that would make me a pseudo-professional [actor] when I was younger,” Price said with a laugh, adding that he received no accolades for his performance.

One of his more recent pastimes is woodworking — making pictures frames, shelving, cabinetry and his signature wooden spoons. Price said he finds it “therapeutic to sand the spoon that mom uses to cook with in the dead of winter.”

But he said that’s as far as his detail craftsmanship goes.

“I’m not the finishing, molding work,” Price said. “I’m more of the two-by-four type of person.”

Just as a two-by-four is at its best when it is joined with others, Price emphasized that he wants to work with members of the body to prepare for the “tsunami” of challenges that await the state.

“We’re all going to have to pull together to do something that is going to be tough, and we’ll have our mettle tested.”